The SVI Foundation Board is comprised of committed leaders who are generous with their time, talent and treasure. The Foundation Board members assist SVI in raising funds to meet strategic goals.
Ms Karen Inge
Chair, SVI Foundation Board
Karen Inge is one of Australia’s most established and recognised leaders in the fields of sports nutrition and dietetics. She is a respected nutrition commentator for media and is actively involved in community service and philanthropy. She is the founding board member and Past President of Sports Dietitians Australia, founding Head of Nutrition at the Victorian Institute of Sport and Founder of the healthy food company Dineamic. Ms Inge is a Director of the Zig Inge Group, a Director of the Zig Inge Foundation and the Janko/Inge Foundation, and an Ambassador for Fareshare. In 2015, Ms Inge was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Monash University for her work in sports nutrition and in 2018 was named Deakin University Alumna of the Year.
Ms Rhonda Barro
Rhonda Barro is an Executive Director of Barro Group and has over 45 years’ experience in the construction materials industry and executive management in line and functional areas. She has significant expertise and insights in customer and stakeholder relations. Rhonda is a non-executive director of Adbri Ltd and Independent Cement & Lime Pty Ltd and has held numerous leadership roles in community organisations. She is a Director of the Italian Australian Foundation and a Fellow of the Williamson Leadership Program.
Mrs Caroline Daniell
Since studying art, Caroline Daniell has worked in catering, event planning and as a personal assistant. She is the current past President of the National Gallery Victoria Women’s Association and the current Honorary Treasurer of The Alexandra Club.
Ms Bernadette Dennis OAM
Bernadette Dennis is the Director of BD Concepts Pty Ltd, a consultancy company, focusing on providing customer service skills, sales training and marketing concepts for the hospitality, tourism and travel industries. Prior to its establishment in March 2007, Ms Dennis was Vice President, Asia Pacific for Marriott International‘s Global Sales Organisation based at the Marriott Asia Pacific Regional Office in Hong Kong. Ms Dennis worked for Marriott International for 22 years and spent 10 years working in hospitality in the US.
In addition to the SVI Foundation Board, she currently sits on boards with the Marriott Vacation Club Asia Pacific Advisory, St Joseph’s Outreach Services and The Friends of The Johnston Collection. She is also involved with other not-for-profits and industry associations, plus she participates as a mentor in TIME, a mentoring
Mr Jeremy Gobbo
Jeremy was educated at Xavier College and the University of Melbourne. He has been a practising lawyer for more than 40 years, 39 years at the Victorian Bar and 23 years as a QC, now KC.
He enjoyed a diverse practice, specialising in property related matters, particularly town planning. He was a member of The Bar’s Ethics Committee for 5 years and Chairman of the committee that managed Foley’s List, Barristers, and a director, for 9 years.
He is a Fellow of the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association. He is a director of International Specialised Skills Institute, a not-for-profit organisation promoting skills by awarding overseas study fellowships.
He left the Bar recently to pursue other activities and is now consulting to three large family businesses in relation to their property and business strategies. He has a particular interest in health and wellness. He is a keen golfer, part-time farmer, Italophile and doting grandfather.
Professor Thomas WH Kay
Tom Kay is Director of SVI. He holds a Professorial appointment within the Department of Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital and The University of Melbourne. He also holds the position of Honorary Endocrinologist at St Vincent’s Hospital.
Professor Kay’s research interests are in the area of autoimmunity, particularly of type 1 diabetes.
Ms Margaret Lodge
Margaret Lodge’s professional background is as a lawyer, initially as a teacher at Monash University and The University of Melbourne and then, from 1997 to 2009, as a barrister practising mainly in white collar crime at the Victorian Bar. Since then, Ms Lodge has been extensively involved in the not-for-profit sector as a director of St Mary’s House of Welcome for 10 years, a member of the Board of the Centre Against Sexual Assault (Footscray) for three years and a member of the Advisory Education Board for the Loretto and FCJ Schools and its successor, the FCJ School Board, for two further years. She has been a member of The University of Melbourne Behavioural and Social Science Ethics Committee since 2008 and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Ethics Committee since 2012.
Mrs Claire O’Callaghan OAM
Chair, SVI Support Group
A St Vincent’s Hospital trainee, Claire O’Callaghan returned to part-time nursing once her five children were in full-time education.
She has chaired a number of fundraising and educational organisations, including the original Noah’s Ark Toy Library for Handicapped Children and is Chair of the SVI Support Group.
Mr Tony Reeves
Tony Reeves is an experienced senior executive and director. He served as Chief Financial Officer of several Australian public companies, most recently Treasury Wine Estates Limited, and prior to that Foster’s Group Limited, another global premium beverage company. Prior to Foster’s, he was CFO of OneSteel Limited, a fully integrated global manufacturer and distributor of steel and finished steel products, which was demerged from BHP Billiton. Earlier in his career, he was CFO of Orica Explosives after holding several senior executive roles in strategy, finance, marketing and IT with the ICI Group in the UK, USA, and Australia.
Mr Reeves is a past President of the Group of 100, an organisation of CFOs from Australia’s largest businesses. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development. Mr Reeves is a Fellow of CPA Australia, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Financial Executives Institute. He is Chair of Hewitt Cattle Australia Pty Ltd and Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat Company Pty Ltd and is a Director of Private Banking Services Ltd. He joined the SVI Board in March 2017.
Mrs Christine Tarascio AM
Co-Vice Chair, SVI Foundation
Christine Tarascio is the matriarch of the Tarascio family, proud owners of Salta Properties and Salta Capital. Salta’s breadth of property development projects and investments across multiple sectors has helped it become one of Australia’s largest privately owned property companies.
Ms Tarascio has been an active fundraiser over many years for various causes, including the Lady Mayoress’s Fund, Queen Elizabeth Centre, PMB (Private Men’s Business, raising funds for prostate cancer research), Pampering Patients, Women at the Alfred, and St Vincent’s Institute. Ms Tarascio is a long-term member of the SVI Foundation Board and was responsible for the set-up and development of the SVI Discovery Fund. She is the founder and chair of the Tarascio Family Foundation.
Ms Yan Li Wang
Yan Li Wang is a Partner of HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, a major Australian legal firm, practising primarily in tax and commercial law. For the past 10 years, she has been an advisory committee member and Australian representative of three private charitable foundations with a global reach in more than 40 countries, working with NGOs both in Australia and overseas on projects in medical research, education, Microfinance, social enterprises and post-disaster reconstruction.
Ms Wang has been a member of the Melbourne Leadership Council of Social Ventures Australia and is a current member of the assessment panel appointed by the City of Melbourne to evaluate applications for social enterprise and micro business grants.